Hedge funds contemplate safer climate in US

Times Online – A new front is opening up in the battle between London and New York to be the world’s dominant financial centre.

Hedge funds, and the thorny question of where they decide to do business over the coming months, could mark a turning point in the delicate balance of power between the two market capitals.

Despite widespread fears that hundreds of funds are poised to collapse, any shake-out in the industry will still leave hundreds of healthy firms with billions to invest.

Experts say that some of the industry’s biggest funds are considering whether to move billions of dollars worth of assets across the Atlantic to the United States in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment bank.